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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN (April 21, 2004) — Milligan College will host a Festival of Song on Saturday, May 1, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. in Seeger Memorial Chapel. The festival will feature the top 10 favorite hymns and worship songs selected by members of area churches and performed by Milligan College musical groups and choirs from the community.
John Wakefield, associate professor of music at Milligan College, got the idea for this concert from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), who surveys the people of England to determine the top ten favorite hymns each year. After the results of the survey are compiled, Alan Luff, a close friend of Wakefield who serves as the praecentor at St. Phillips Cathedral in Birmingham, England, leads the broadcast.
Wakefield thought since such high numbers of people tune in to the broadcasts in England that the idea might go well over here, too.
“I thought this is an area that would enjoy hearing the songs they selected as their favorite hymns performed by a compilation of musical groups,” Wakefield said.
Musical leadership from Milligan College will come from the brass choir, chamber orchestra, concert choir, Milligan Men, Milligan Singers and organist and music professor David Runner. The festival also will feature three adult church choirs, one children’s choir, one hand bell choir, two area pastors and one soloist from the community.
Wakefield said, “We’ve had a bunch of area churches participate. Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Freewill Baptist, Christian churches, you name it.”
The Festival of Song will feature the top ten favorite hymns, beginning with number 10. The performance will be interwoven with two to four inspirational stories about some of the songs and a brief introduction of each song. The audience will sing at least seven of the songs, with accompaniment from all of the groups involved.
While Wakefield will not reveal which songs were selected for the festival, he did say, “In this region, you can speculate that Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art will probably be in there somewhere.”
The festival is open to the general public and is free of charge. For more information call 423-461-8723.